Energy and labour issues are the main challenges facing cucumber production in the UK, especially in the Lea Valley. “Normally, growers would plant the cucumbers in the greenhouses in early January. This year, the majority do not plant until late February or early March, some wait until April,” said Lee Stiles, Secretary of the Lea Valley Growers’ Association. “The season runs until September.”
According to Lee, energy costs are too high to plant in January. “Last year, the growers only used the boilers every other day from May, in order to heat the greenhouse anyway and at the same time save costs. As a result, less CO2 entered the greenhouse, which reduced the yield.”
Last year, the cost of energy was between £6-8 per therm (about 29 kilowatt hours), this year it is £1.70, and before the energy crisis it was only £0.40 per therm. Half of UK growers did not plant last year.
“10% of growers stopped growing last year and the land is now being made available for housing or light industrial use. Since 1960, four or five growers per year stopped, in 2021 and 2022 this number grew to ten per year. This will really affect the acreage used to grow food and will seriously affect the country’s food security. We are seeing more and more imports, not only from Spain and the Netherlands, but also more and more from Turkey, Morocco and Egypt. It takes a week to deliver products from these countries by road.”
“This situation applies to the entire UK fresh produce sector: not only energy and labour costs have risen, all other costs have also risen, while the return for retail is hardly increasing.
The government has imposed a maximum price for energy (£ 2.19 per therm), which entered into force in October last year and will expire in March, after which it will be replaced by a 6% discount.
According to Lea, the growers have never received any support from the government. Labour and cost policies need to change and growers need to be given more support.
